


A friend

by Vitanitas



Category: RWBY
Genre: Androids, Character Study, F/F, Friendship, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Robots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 08:16:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1737662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vitanitas/pseuds/Vitanitas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Penny doesn't have many friends. This is simple fact, a facet of her new life; not something she wastes energy thinking about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A friend

Penny doesn’t have many friends. This is simple fact, a facet of her new life; not something she wastes energy thinking about.  The number of friends she has she can count on both hands, and even then the number is probably much smaller than she would like. Besides Ruby, she isn’t sure if the others she could count as ‘friends.’

There’s Sir. But she doesn’t know him that well. Granted, she doesn’t know Ruby that well either, but at least Ruby has been more willing to divulge facts about herself, her life.

 What she knows of Sir is only what he expects of her. What he likes and dislikes of her, what his voice sounds like when he’s scolding her. What he will do if she fails… It’s not much that she knows about him, but she does know he doesn’t consider her a ‘friend’. Maybe a daughter? Or an employee… She isn’t sure.

She tries not to believe that she is no more than a tool to be used by him… no she must be more than that.

Then there are the three doctors. The two who work on her body, bandage her if she gets cut, or recalibrates a joint that’s out of place. They keep up with her maintenance, as they like to call it, so as to make sure her body doesn’t break. They’ll tut if she cries from something painful, and gloat when they see how much her body can sustain during battle.

Meanwhile the last doctor, the nicest of the three, will check her software. She’ll connect her to a monitor, ask her questions, and make sure that her mind doesn’t malfunction. She’s grateful that she only asks basic questions, and lets Penny keep a semblance of privacy.

There are also the others… other like her. In her mind she refers to them as ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’, referring to the colors they wear on their armor. They don’t speak to her much, to speak much at all except to each other in fact. Secretly she is fond of them, though they tend not to acknowledge her.

 There are the servants of the house as well. Every few hours they’ll bring nourishment to her sparsely furnished room. They aren’t really friends either, Penny decides. They never really speak to her, beyond questions to be answered or orders to be followed. And when they bring her food they don’t eat with her and talk about things, like Ruby did with her.

When Penny thinks of them she realizes they are not exactly pleasant to be around. It’s strange how cold her caretakers seem when she’s been around the warmth of Ruby.

No, they aren’t really friends.

But Ruby, Ruby is definitely a friend. Ruby told her stories, didn’t simply hand her a book or a database. Her stories, although perhaps childish in their retelling, were colorful and rife with life. The sparkle in her silver eyes, or the flailing of her arms would ensconce Penny in the story. She told her of fights with beowolves, playing tag with Yang, and the day she discovered her semblance. Penny adored listening to her. The excitement or melancholy that weaved in her voice with her retellings filled Penny with awe.

Ruby would listen to Penny too. Patiently she would listen to her, giggle or nod or ask for more detail. She was generally interested, even though Penny’s stories were so simple. She wasn’t like the doctors, who would brush her off or tell her to hush. So she would tell her, stories like the ladybug she saw on a flower that reminded her of Ruby, or the cat that lived near her home that she couldn’t decide a name on.

Ruby interacts with her, as is she was a person, and not well… a tool.

Being with Ruby was refreshing, wonderful. It was a welcome change from the doctors and their cold questions and cold stares. Ruby was warmth and laughter, and she made Penny’s heart skip (and she did, she did have a heart. No matter what the doctors said- she remembers how a heart feels. And she feels it when she’s with Ruby.)

Yes, Ruby was her friend. And she’s Ruby’s friend too, Ruby told her so.

So it makes her chest tighten, in an emotion she couldn’t name whenever she had to leave her. How she couldn’t tell her what her ‘home’ was like, or that to her ‘home’ was Ruby. Friends tell each other things, that’s what Penny had read and what she had told Ruby herself. So, why couldn’t she tell her, that she was different? That she was sad when Ruby wasn’t there. Or that she was scared, that Sir might ask her to do something she doesn’t want to do?

That when her arm is detached to be adjusted there is a cold, dead feeling in her that she can’t access the name of.

She wants too. Wants to tell her she was different before but now she’s this, and even though she’s okay with that, she’s scared Ruby might not be. She wants to tell her how terrifying it was, the few time’s she malfunctioned, like she was trapped in her mind that skipped and jumped around from thought to words to numbers, while her body thrashed about beyond her control.

But she can’t. When she tries, her tongue refuses to move, and her thoughts seem to go blank. And she’s not sure if that is because she’s scared or if it’s something the third doctor might have done. Some code placed place in her mind to still her tongue.

She can’t tell Ruby how much that scares her either. That she can’t tell her friend that she’s frightened.

But she can see her. She can escape her room when she can, and meet up with Ruby in Vale. She can laugh with her and talk with her. And for now that’s enough.

Because even though Penny doesn’t have many friends, she has Ruby, and Ruby is more than enough.

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't find any nuts and dolts fics on ao3??  
> Therefore I felt it was my solemn duty to post this little ficlet.  
> I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
